the 2017 digital transformation report - skiftx · 2017-11-02 · the modern travel consumer is...

Experiential, Personal, Automated, Ready: Aligning Content & Marketing Strategy With The Digital Traveler

If you have any questions about the reportplease contact [email protected].

by Luke Bujarski, Davide Montali + Skift Team

skift.com

THE 2017 DIGITALTRANSFORMATION REPORT

Skift Report

adobe.com epsilon.com

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The 2017 Digital Transformation Report SKIFT REPORT 2016

Introduction: Adapting to Change 3

Key Transformative Themes 5

State of the Digitally Empowered Traveler 8

The Four Pillars of Digital Transformation 15

A) User Experience 16

B) Personalization 18

C) Automation 22

D) Organizational Readiness 23

Conclusions: Brought to you by Adobe and Epsilon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT SKIFT

Skift is a travel intelligence company that offers news, data, and services to professionals in travel and professional travelers, to help them make smart decisions about travel.

Skift is the business of travel.

Visit skift.com for more.

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INTRODUCTION : ADAPTING TO CHANGE

This is a truly exciting yet challenging time for consumer-facing brands in travel. The breakneck pace

of disruption in mobile computing, social media, digital content creation and content delivery has

completely altered the way consumers shop for, book, share and ultimately experience travel.

Instant access to product information and reviews via user generated content (UGS) means that

would-be travelers can now shop around on their own time – during their commute, in bed, even

while in the bathroom. Innovations in digital payments and information verification have also given

birth to new travel products. The sharing economy has gone mainstream, for instance; hoteliers must

now compete with the likes of Airbnb.

And in this super-heated competitive environment, every traveler is

also a content creator and publisher. Experiencing places before the

actual experience is the new norm. People also expect engaging,

visual, and interactive forms of content. The world is watching.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media channels

almost guarantee that your brand will be on full display to anyone

with an internet connection.

All of this means that marketing executives now have a new

strategic mandate to lead, or at the very least, keep pace with this

DIGITAL HAS COMPLETELY ALTERED THE WAY CON-SUMERS SHOP FOR, BOOK, SHARE AND ULTIMATELY EXPERIENCE TRAVEL.

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unprecedented pace of change in consumer behavior. It’s an environment fraught with challenges and

opportunities. A big part of that requires technology and the ability to engage the customer through

personalized digital dialog via email, web, in-app and other channels now coming online. That means

effective and relevant messaging at the right place and right time. To personalize at scale also requires

coordinated efforts in content creation, distribution, data collection, storage and analysis.

In response to this new landscape, Skift’s 2017 Digital Transformation Report takes the pulse of

how travel marketers are evolving their digital infrastructure, both on the front and back-end of the

organization. We also hope to give travel brands a forward view of best practices in the industry, and

what they can expect in the months and years ahead.

We highlight data and draw conclusions from our 2016 Digital Transformation in Travel Survey,

among other Skift surveys and sources including numerous industry interviews. Over 200 companies

responded to our survey.

We also profile today’s digitally-enabled traveler to get a better sense of how brands can best align their

digital transformation efforts around these four core pillars of digital transformation: User experience,

personalization, automation, and the organizational readiness to succeed in an increasingly digital

world.

During our interviews, we encouraged travel industry stakeholders to answer for key questions about

their digital transformation strategy:

Are You:

Experiential? Do I offer truly unique, seamless, and cross-channel digital experiences that leave lasting

impressions on my customer?

Personal? Do I tailor my digital experience and marketing message to each customer?

Automated? Do I have the integrated front and back-end systems that will drive return-on-investment

on my technology spend?

Ready? Do I have the time, money and talent to deliver on my digital objectives?

Experiential Personal Automated Ready

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KEY TRANSFORMATIVE THEMES

Digital has completely altered the way

consumers shop for, book, share and

ultimately experience travel.

Fragmentation in data across disparate

systems and digital infrastructure

continues to challenge many companies

in delivering automated and personalized

content.

Some companies lead, but most follow or

lag in their ability to compete digitally.

Competitiveness often comes down to

having the budget and talent.

Ownership and intimate knowledge of the

customer is a key source of competitive

advantage for established travel brands.

It’s a multi-device world – deal with it.

Channel fragmentation makes it difficult

to anticipate content placement and

format.

The modern travel consumer is always

connected and always on.

Travel is an emotional journey; meeting

expectations requires a personalized

touch.

Avoiding mobile, is like avoiding the

Internet ten years ago – but is mobile first

a smart strategy?

Personalization and customer journey

tracking is a must-have for travel

companies.

Big Data needs automation to deliver

meaningful insights.

Digital transformation requires a clear

understanding and delineation of goals

and key performance indicators (KPIs).

In an ideal world, the output in data

from the digital environments that travel

brands create would translate seamlessly

into actionable insights that the front

line can use to create those same smart

experiences.

From our findings, we distilled the following key themes or takeaways that resonate throughout

the remainder of the report:

FRAGMENTATION IN DATA ACROSS DISPARATE SYSTEMS AND DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE CONTINUES TO CHALLENGE MANY COMPANIES IN DELIVERING AUTOMATED AND PERSONALIZED CONTENT.

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Arguably, certain players in certain segments

of travel have fallen behind when it comes

to creating the unique types of digital

experiences that consumers have now grown

accustomed to. New concepts and product

categories that have spun out of the ‘app’

and ‘sharing’ economies have changed how

we connect through technology. Socializing,

transport, shopping, entertainment, dining

– even relationships have taken on a new life

online across different digital channels.

Automated and personalized is the order of

the day. “If you like this, then you’ll love these”

is the new tagline. Legacy brands in travel

are now inclined to reverse engineer these

same experiences. But working on existing

infrastructure can present challenges when

it comes to data. Take any major hotel chain

operating in multiple markets under multiple

brands across numerous digital marketing

and distribution platforms.

Disparate teams must factor in different

direct and indirect customer acquisition

strategies. Patchworks of customer databases

need to talk with each other on the back

end in order to deliver custom content on

the front end. This takes a lot of coordination

across product teams.

Connecting these two worlds has become

a common challenge for most companies

operating in the digital sphere, particularly

during a time when the pace of innovation

moves so quickly. How do we stay relevant to

the consumer without taking on too many

costs or too much risk in disrupting our

existing systems?

In the travel space, many companies still feel

unprepared to get this balance right. Almost

a quarter of the 229 travel companies that

responded to our Digital Transformation

survey consider themselves ahead of the

curve, but over one-third find themselves

behind in their digital transformation

strategy. Perhaps not surprisingly, the largest

share believe that they are keeping pace with

the competition.

NAVIGATING DIGITAL? IT’S LIKE STEERING AN ICEBERG.

SOME COMPANIES LEAD, BUT MOST FOLLOW OR LAG IN THEIR ABILITY TO COMPETE DIGITALLY

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Overall, how do you feel about your organization’s ability to compete in a digital world?

We are ahead of the curve.

We keep pace with the competition

We are behind in our digital transformation strategy

24%

44%

32%

COMPETITIVENESS OFTEN COMES DOWN TO HAVING THE BUDGET AND TALENT.

So what keeps travel marketers up at night?

In the current environment, the pace of

innovation across all things digital has exploded

the demand for skilled workers. The concerns

expressed by travel largely mirror what’s going

on with the rest of the world.

Over 40% of survey respondents expressed

‘concern’ about having the right level of talent

to deliver on their digital objectives. Close to

half said that budget challenges were stalling

their digital efforts. With the rising demand for

tech talent globally, travel companies will need

to compete with other sectors in attracting the

right people with limited budgets.

In this constrained environment where

investments in technology and personnel can

spell success or failure, travel companies clearly

need to pay close attention to the needs of

the traveler and consumer behavior before

embarking on new digital initiatives.

Source: Skift’s 2016 Digital Transformation in Travel Survey

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Do you have the talent and budget to deliver on your digital objectives?

Got Talent?

Got Budget?

41% CONCERNED

47% CONCERNED

Vertical and domain expertise goes a long

way, but the rules of engagement in travel are

also changing. Competition for the almighty

consumer is building, as new entrants look

to dislodge established players. Newcomers

like Facebook, Google, Amazon – these

digital giants all have deep pockets and big

ambitions in travel.

The modern consumer spends much of his

or her time on these applications; it makes

sense for them to offer travel products as

an extension of the full experience. In this

context, the biggest advantage that travel

brands have is their ownership and intimate

knowledge of the customer.

Both suppliers and intermediaries understand

what makes the travel consumer tick better

than anyone – with certain distinctions.

Suppliers tend to have the advantage

of visibility into consumer behavior

during product or service engagement.

Intermediaries tend to have more visibility

into trip planning behavior such as

destination selections.

Both sides have the historical relationship and

behavioral data to more proactively engage

with the traveler; building that customer

relationship across the entire traveler

journey requires savvy marketing and a deep

understanding of digital consumption habits.

OWNERSHIP AND INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CUSTOMER IS A KEY SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR ESTABLISHED TRAVEL BRANDS.

Source: Skift’s 2016 Digital Transformation in Travel Survey

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STATE OF THE DIGITALLY EMPOWERED TRAVELER

Today’s traveler leans heavily on technology

during all stages of the travel journey.

Shopping for and booking travel online is

no longer a new thing, but as our daily lives

integrate with modern technology, travel

brands also need to stay conscious of the

image and message that they convey before,

during and after the trip.

In the United States, smartphone penetration

among adults has already surpassed 90%

- just nine years after Apple launched the

first iPhone, according to Skift’s 2016 In-

Destination Traveler Behavior Survey. What

does this mean for consumer-facing travel

companies?

First and foremost, it means that we need to

connect with customers on multiple devices.

But surprisingly, when asked about their travel

shopping and booking preferences, many

travel consumers still prefer the desktop or

laptop as their device of choice.

IT’S A MULTI-DEVICE WORLD – DEAL WITH IT.

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In the United States, smartphone penetration

among adults has already surpassed 90%

- just nine years after Apple launched the

first iPhone, according to Skift’s 2016 In-

Destination Traveler Behavior Survey. What

does this mean for consumer-facing travel

companies?

First and foremost, it means that we need to

connect with customers on multiple devices.

But surprisingly, when asked about their travel

shopping and booking preferences, many

travel consumers still prefer the desktop or

laptop as their device of choice.

The travel industry (as well as other industries)

also have a clear directive to pivot their

content and capabilities within the mobile

environment. Just over a quarter of the

travelers surveyed said they prefer either

smartphones or tablets when researching

travel products and destinations.

Travelers are now inextricably tied to their

mobile devices while on the road, depending

heavily on services like mapping, search, user

generated content, review sites, messaging,

social media and of course voice. Our In-

destination survey revealed that a majority of

travelers leaned on their smartphones more

when away, then while at home.

For travel companies looking to build

relationships with their core customers,

having the means to customize content

across different channels for different portions

of the customer journey compounds the

digital transformation challenge.

Which of these devices is your MOST favorite when researching travel destinations and services?

Smartphone

Laptop or desktop

Tablet

I never plan my own travel

15%

11%

73%

2%

Source: Skift’s 2016 In-Destination Traveler Behavior Survey

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Our appetite for rich mobile content also

continues to grow. Video and visual content

shared via streaming services such as Netflix

and social networks including Facebook and

YouTube makes up a large portion of our total

mobile data consumption; those of us that

travel regularly also have the means to access

rich content. A vast majority of travelers

surveyed had unlimited data packages with

their existing smartphone plans.

During this trip, do you expect to spend MORE TIME or LESS TIME on your smartphone than you usually do while at home?

More time

Less time

The same amount of time

59%

15%

26%

Do you have an unlimited data package with your smartphone plan, or do you need to be mindful of data usage?

Unlimited data plan

Mindful of data usage

23%

77%

CHANNEL PREFERENCE MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO ANTICIPATE CONTENT PLACEMENT AND FORMAT.



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Connectivity on social networks is also clearly

important to travelers. 70% were very likely to

share their holiday pictures on social media.

Their favorite social media sites included:

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

This wide array of consumer preference in

social channels underscores the challenge

of connecting with the traveler at the right

place, at the right time. Furthermore, most of

these applications play with different formats,

whether it be video, or photo or voice.

In your daily life, which of the following social media apps do you use MOST often?

Facebook 85%

YouTube 67%

Twitter 50%

Instagram 47%

Google+ 39%

Pinterest 23%

LinkedIn 20%

Tumblr 15%

Reddit 10%

Flickr 7%

Vine 5%


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Seventy-nine percent of travelers said they

used their smartphones to catch up on work

during their trip. When it comes to connecting

with the customer through email and other

channels, travel brands should stay mindful of

the barrage of messaging and communications

travelers absorb on a daily basis in their daily

lives but also in-trip while abroad.

THE MODERN TRAVEL CONSUMER IS ALWAYS CONNECTED AND ALWAYS ON.

Will you be using your smartphone to check in with and emails on this trip?

No19%

Yes79%

I don’t know2%


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Our in-destination survey also exposed a

unique occurrence common among many

travelers. The emotional journey of travel can

be a rollercoaster ride; travel is a significant

investment in time and money so expectations

run high. Often times those expectations can

prove hard to meet. Travel companies should

take into account these emotional highs and

lows that travelers go through.

Ultimately, it’s a multi-device world where

the convergence between tech and digital

customer engagement now extends well

beyond the traditional purchase funnel.

Travelers are always on; brands need to know

when to engage them. In this context, travel

companies need to think about how they build

and sustain healthy digital relationships with

their customers.

TRAVEL IS AN EMOTIONAL JOURNEY; MEETING EXPECTATIONS REQUIRES A PERSONALIZED TOUCH.

Overall, how satisfied are you with your current vacation or leisure trip?

82%

17%

0% 0% 0%

73%

26%

66%

32%

1% 1% 1%

At the beginning of my trip Towards the middle of my trip Towards the end of my trip

Very Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied Unsatisfied Very Unsatisfied


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FOUR PILLARS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONIn this section, we highlight findings from

our most recent travel industry survey, our

2016 Digital Transformation in Travel Survey.

We evaluate different segments of the travel

sector and look at stakeholder attitudes and

perceptions about their ability to compete in

a digital landscape. We organize our analysis

and data around what we call the Four Pillars

of Digital Transformation:

• User Experience

• Personalization

• Automation

• Organizational Readiness

We inquired about various aspects of

their digital strategies but also asked each

respondent to evaluate their own performance

along these four categories. The star ratings

we received tell us a lot about where the

travel industry as whole is along their digital

transformation journey

We inquired about various aspects of

their digital strategies but also asked each

respondent to evaluate their own performance

along these four categories. The star ratings

we received tell us a lot about where the

travel industry as whole is along their digital

transformation journey

A QUARTER OF ALL RESPONDENTS GAVE THEMSELVES A 3-STAR OR LESS RATING FOR AUTOMATION.

How would you rate your organization on these four pillars of digital transformation?5 STARS = EXCELLENT 1 STARS = VERY POOR

5 STARS

4 STARS

3 STARS

2 STARS

1 STARS

Customer Experience

Personalization Automation Readiness

17% 12% 4% 8%

34%20% 23% 23%

33%37%32%

31%

13%28% 26% 25%

11%11%7%5%


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This self-assessment suggests that the travel

industry as a whole remains in transition. Over

half of respondent companies gave themselves

four or five-star ratings when it comes to

customer experience. But perceptions were

much less confident when it came to the other

three pillars; e.g. Over 65% of respondents gave

themselves a rating of three stars or less for

their efforts in Personalization, Automation,

and overall Readiness. Automation fared

the worst of all categories. A quarter of all

respondents gave themselves a 3-star or less

rating for Automation.

Clearly, all four pillars are interconnected.

These days, outstanding customer experience

requires a customized and personalized

approach to digital content and marketing.

Budget and talent in tech but also strong

leadership that understands the importance

of having a 360-degree view of the customer

are the foundations of bringing customer

experience to life. So what can marketers

do at each of these intersections of

transformation?

User Experience

Travelers are on the move and they expect

their content to be relevant and engaging

throughout that journey. Creating high-quality

personalized content across multiple devices

requires connectivity to an integrated suite of

technology solutions. Having all your assets

centralized in a single hub, so that you can

access, manage, and monitor customers and

content is critical.

Today’s mobile environment continues to

present challenges and opportunities for

travel brands. While the adoption of mobile

computing in travel is already well under

way, challenges with the mobile experience

remain. A recent Google survey found that

69% of business travelers cite reasons related

to “mobile limitations or mobile usability” as

reason for booking on another device.

Our own survey results also point to continued

consumer preference toward the desktop

and laptop experience – 75% of avid travelers

preferred the desktop/laptop over mobile

when it came to shopping for and booking

mobile. In our 2016 Digital Transformation

Survey, we also found that close to half of

travel companies had less than 20% of their

total traffic originating from mobile.

AVOIDING MOBILE, IS LIKE AVOIDING THE INTERNET TEN YEARS AGO – BUT IS MOBILE FIRST A SMART STRATEGY?

About what share of your traffic comes from moblie platforms including smartphones and tablets?

10% or less

11%-20%

21%-40%

41%-60%

Over 60%

20%

35%

27%

13%

5%


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So what does all of this mean within the

context of mobile strategy and online travel?

Much of the recent peer discussion has

advocated for “mobile-first” strategies. Clearly

the mobile channel is here to stay and will

likely consume even more of our time spent

online going forward; the skyrocketing rate

of global data consumption supports that

notion. Accordingly, about one-third of those

travel marketers surveyed said they did

indeed consider themselves a mobile-first

organization.

Well over half did not, perhaps with good

reason. In today’s multi-device, multi-channel

world, playing favourites may not be the

most prudent of strategies. Any doubts about

mobile as a relevant digital channel have

long faded; the mobile-first doctrine was a

by-product of a brief era in time when most

companies had little clue about what to do in

the mobile space. For marketers, translating

personalized content seamlessly across all

platforms was and still is the order of the day.

Recently, things have gotten even more

complicated with things like user generated

content (UGS). As it turns out, travellers trust

other travellers, more than they trust brands.

Online reviews for big-ticket purchase items

like air travel and hotel stays are particularly

valuable to consumers. Travel suppliers and

intermediaries recognize the importance of

functioning as a platform that facilitates this

dialog.

When it comes to digital strategy, do you consider your group a “mobile-first” organization?

Yes

No

I don’t know

32%

62%

6%

How important is user generated content (UGC) to the overall customer experience of your digital environment

Very important

Somewhatimportant

Not very important

Not at all important

32%

22%

38%

8%


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Personalization

What are the challenges when it comes to

personalized travel content? Here, we offer

insights into today’s travel companies. Do

they already have an eye on personalization?

How are they achieving it, and what are their

greatest barriers?

Customers today are accustomed to receiving

personalized services. For companies the

return on communicating personalized

product offers is clear. Thanks to the

collectable data available today, companies

can target their customers with increasing

levels of accuracy. A big part of the challenge

here is to gain insights from the terabytes of

data created every day.

Fragmentation remains a challenge for

many organizations when it comes to

personalization. Operating on different

systems while pulling data from different

sources means that it can be difficult to

connect information about the customer.

This can result in data silos, poor data hygiene

and ultimately the inability to customize

communications for the customer.

In a recent interview, the head of digital for

a certain U.S. airline commented that “my

ultimate goal is to have an integrated content

management system, that’s more platform

agnostic, and does the decision marking on

who gets what message.”

Darrell Wade, CEO of Intrepid Travel also says

that the reluctance among travel companies

to share data among themselves can limit

the extent of personalization that companies

can offer to their customers. Building and

automating personalized campaigns requires

a lot of time and effort largely because of this

fragmentation in data.

PERSONALIZATION AND CUSTOMER JOURNEY TRACKING IS A MUST-HAVE FOR TRAVEL COMPANIES.

To what degree is fragmentation in customer data and the analytics platforms that you use a concern to your organization/

16%

36%

35%

5%

8%

Fragmentation is of serious concern

Fragmentation is of considerable concern

Fragmentation is concerning but we manage

Fragmentation is not a major concern

Not sure


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While companies used an array of

measurement and optimization tools to track

user behavior, less than a fifth of companies

said they were ‘very confident’ about their

ability to deliver personalized experiences to

their users.

How confident do you feel about the following statement: My organization can effectively deliver personalized experiences and messaging for our customers.

Quite Confident

SomewhatConfident

SomewhatConcerned

Quite Concerned

19%

27%

42%

12%


20


The most common analytics collection tools

were: Website analytics, social media analytics

and customer reviews. Yet in most cases these

data are collected from multiple sources,

leaving companies in the dark about user data

and how to translate that intel into effective

personalized campaigns. The inability to tie

together and centralize data proves to be a

major challenge today.

Which of the following customer experience measurement and optimization tactics do you currently use?

Website analytics 84% Social media analytics 74%

Customer reviews 73%

Email optimization 64%

Profile targeting 53%

Retargeting or Remarking 51%

Audience segmentation 47%

Mobile analytics 45%

A/B testing 43%

Onsite survey 37%

Attribution 19%

Automation recommendations 16%

Automated behavioral analytics 16%

Multivariate testing 12%


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The mobile environment presents additional

challenges. Most respondents deployed

website analytics but when it came to mobile

metrics, that number fell by half. Delivering

personalized content requires cross-platform

analytics; the first obvious step is to recognize

the value that a strong data analytics program

can bring to an organization.

Survey results confirmed the importance

that travel brands put on customer data. Just

under 83% of respondents said that customer

data analytics was either ‘critical’ or ‘very

important’ to the direct financial success of

their organizations.

This awareness shows that travel companies

are willing to acquire and take steps to use

data in a more proactive way. One of the major

challenges for smaller companies is the lack of

budget for solving larger IT and Tech problems.

How important is customer data analytics to the direct financial success of your organization?

Critical

Very important

Somewhatimportant

Not that important

Not at all important

36%

12%

49%

2%

0.4%


22


Automation

Digital marketing automation has been

around for some time now. More recently,

the tools used to streamline campaigns

have gotten more sophisticated. Some of

the earliest applications (including Unica)

date back to the early nineties and the very

beginnings of the internet. Eventually, faster

computing and internet speeds brought to

light a new breed of cloud-based marketing

automation platform that could be deployed

at scale.

From 2006 onwards these software-as-a-

service (SaaS) applications began to deliver

digital marketing functionality primarily

focused on email campaigns, reaching

consumers on traditional desktop and laptops.

Much more recently, the rise of social media

and mobile computing have brought new

dynamics and challenges for marketers

aiming to track and target customers across

numerous devices and channels.

Today’s digital reality requires even deeper

integration with CRM data as companies

attempt to track the full scope of their

customers’ journeys across multiple devices

and channels. Hitting the customer with

targeted, personalized content at the right

time and the right device is the front-end

challenge. Once companies go down this road,

the back-of-house data challenges become

immense.

Enterprises need to keep detailed historical

records of their customer relationships. That

includes enhanced reporting and analytics to

measure campaign effectiveness.

Carolyn Corda vice president of strategy and

innovation for Epsilon succinctly described

marketing automation as “leveraging

technology to help with the design, timing

and sequencing of marketing engagement.”

While many survey respondents that

agreed that their marketing platform met

expectations, 31% said they were unsure.

This demonstrates that companies still have

difficulties quantifying the returns they gain

from automation platforms.

The inability to quantify returns from data and

automation suggests that companies struggle

to leverage the full scope of functionality that

these platforms offer. It does make sense that

BIG DATA NEEDS AUTOMATION TO PROVIDE MEANINGFUL INSIGHTS.

The functionality of our marketing automation platform has met our expectations.

Agree

Disagree

I don’t know

44%

30%

27%

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marketing execs don’t feel like they’ve gotten

enough out of marketing automation. They

are still learning particularly as it applies to

the merchandising of various elements of the

travel experience – things like upgraded seat;

flexible check-out, and other ancillary services.

For back-of-house executives, the explosion

in customer data also means that the need

for automation has never been greater.

Travel companies are drowning in customer

data coming from disparate platforms and

channels; the only feasible way to offer

personalization is when certain processes can

effectively tap into these silos in an efficient

and automated manner.

Organizational Readiness

The need for investments in marketing and

digital technology will only continue to

increase. By numerous accounts, CMOs now

spend more on technology than CIOs. At the

same time, demand for technical talent is at

an all-time high. Finding the resources and

time to coordinate and plan for the future in

digital requires commitment and participation

across the organization. Here we looked at

how travel segments are structuring their

teams and who is leading the charge when

it comes to digital transformation. One of the

major challenges for any company engaging in

marketing automation is setting appropriate

benchmarks for success.

Travel companies also face challenges

integrating the insights they get from the data

into their processes. At times, companies are

unaware that they already hold onto valuable

data on their customers, which could be used

to personalize and automate processes.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION REQUIRES A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING AND DELINEATION OF GOALS AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS).

How do you feel about the current state of your customer data analytics program?

We successfully mine and analyze customer data to make smart decisions

We have access to data but are challenged to find time and/or budget to use it

There are holes in our ability to leverage data for decision making

We are in the dark about our customers

29%

35%

34%

2%


24


While challenges remain, most travel

companies prioritize digital transformation

within the upper rank-and-file of the

organization. Well over half of respondents

confirmed that planning and responsibility for

digital transformation rests with the CEO or

other CXO level.

One reoccurring challenge and cause of

fragmentation in data and intelligence is the

clear disconnect between front-end and back-

end platforms.

The reality is that data comes to us from all

directions. Most travel companies collect

customer intelligence from numerous sources

and platforms. Feedback from emails, surveys

and clickstream data needs to come together

into a 360-degree view of the customer. The

art and science of merging these disparate

sources in a cost-effective way is something

that most (if not all) companies will constantly

need to perfect over time.

Organizational readiness is the ultimate

crucial step towards digital transformation.

If a company is not prepared to invest both

time and money into the processes required to

deliver digitally personalised experiences it will

be unlikely to reach any quantitative results.

40%

How far up your organizational struc-ture does active planning and respon-sibility for digital transformation go?

CEO Level

CXO Level

VP Level

Director Level

Lower thandirector

20%

23%

11%

6%

IN AN IDEAL WORLD, THE OUTPUT IN DATA FROM THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS THAT TRAVEL BRANDS CREATE WOULD TRANSLATE SEAMLESSLY INTO ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS THAT THE FRONT LINE CAN USE TO CREATE THOSE SAME SMART EXPERIENCES.

To what extent are your consumer-facing platforms integrated to your back-end customer analytics tools

We operate on a single, seamlessand fully integrated system

We collect data from various sources and platforms

86%

14%


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CONCLUSION FROM ADOBE & EPSILON

Adobe and Epsilon are proud to sponsor this report addressing one of our customers and communities most pressing issues, effective digital

transformation. We believe it is beneficial for the community, our clients, as well as our own organizations to get a quantitative view and an authoritative

assessment of how the marketplace is addressing the opportunities and challenges of greater travel journey and customer interaction digitization. We believe in Skift’s mission to decipher and define global travel trends. In

this case empowering experience delivery professionals, and marketers with the information they need to make better decisions, and exposing successful

approaches from the community. We hope that you draw some comfort from knowing that you’re not alone in striving to push your organization

further, and that you are also inspired by the achievements of those that are more advanced in their digital evolution.

You don’t have to go it alone. Adobe and Epsilon are each committed to your digital transformation and elevating the traveler experience. We have made the investments in technology, data and integration services and have the

strategic capabilities to help you in this journey. Enjoy the article!

adobe.com epsilon.com

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ABOUT SKIFT

Skift is a business information company focused on travel intelligence and offers

news, data, and services to professionals in travel and professional travelers, to help

them make smart decisions about travel.

Founded in 2012 by media entrepreneur Rafat Ali, Skift is based in New York City and

backed by Lerer Ventures, Advancit Capital and other marquee media-tech investors.

Visit skift.com for more.

the 2017 digital transformation report - skiftx · 2017-11-02 · the modern travel consumer is...

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